Framework

Acceptance criteria tell engineering: "This feature is done when..."

For AI features, AC must include:

  • Functional: MVP works (recommendations generate, predictions work)
  • Accuracy: Meets success threshold (80% accuracy, <200ms latency)
  • Safety: No unacceptable failure modes manifest (no hallucinations on edge cases)
  • Monitoring: Metrics dashboards live and alerting configured
  • Rollback: Kill-switch exists and tested

Examples

Bad AC: "Recommendations feature is complete"

Good AC:

  • Recommendations generate for 95% of users
  • Accuracy >= 75% on holdout test set
  • Latency < 300ms p99
  • Hallucinations rate < 0.5%
  • Monitoring dashboard live with alerts
  • One-click disable flag tested end-to-end
  • User thumbs-down button present and logging

Key Takeaways

  • AC should be testable, measurable, unambiguous. "Works" is not AC. "Accuracy > 75%" is AC.
  • Include safety + monitoring in AC. If you ship without monitoring, you fail AC.